Hidamari Sketch(ひだまりスケッチ,Hidamari
Suketchi
?, also known as Sunshine
Sketch), is a Japanese four-panelcomic strip by Ume Aoki revolving around the daily lives of a
group of young girls all living in the same apartment where artists
gather.[1]
It was first serialized in the seinenmanga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat in
April 2004, published by Houbunsha. Yen Press licensed the manga for English
language distribution, and released the first volume on May 27,
2008.[1]
A twelve-episode anime based on
the manga under the original title Hidamari Sketch aired
in Japan between January and March 2007.[2]
Two more special episodes were
aired on October 18, 2007. A second season entitled Hidamari
Sketch×365 aired in Japan between July and September 2008.[3]
Two special episodes for the second season were aired in October
2009. A third season, titled Hidamari Sketch×Hoshi Mittsu(ひだまりスケッチ×☆☆☆
?, lit. Hidamari Sketch x Three
Stars), began airing on January 7, 2010. Two light novels were
written by Chabō Higurashi, with illustrations by Aoki, which drew
its story directly from the manga.

Contents

Plot

Hidamari Sketch centers around a young girl named Yuno
who finally is able to get accepted into Yamabuki Art High School,
which she has longed for. To attend the school, Yuno moves and
starts to live in a small apartment building named the Hidamari
Apartments (ひだまり荘,Hidamari-sō
?) located near the school. Once there,
she starts making new friends like her classmate Miyako and the
second year students, Hiro and Sae. The events of the characters'
everyday lives are shown as they attend the school together and get
to know each other better.

Characters

Yuno, sometimes called "Yunocchi" by Miyako, is a young girl
and main character in the story. She lives in the Hidamari
Apartments, along with her close friends and neighbors Miyako,
Hiro, and Sae. Her friends think of her as a very nice person. Yuno
dreams of being a great artist someday. Although she is a skilled
artist overall, she considers painting and drawing her specialties.
She rarely takes off a pair of X-shaped black hairpins.

Miyako is Yuno's close friend, classmate, and next door
neighbor in the apartment building where they live. Yuno refers to
her as Miya-chan. She has an active personality and is always
trying to have fun with her friends. Her exuberance frequently
borders on the childlike, but she is undeniably creative. She is
very spontaneous and claims the word "plan" does not exist in her
dictionary. She loves to eat and has frequently asked for Hiro's
leftovers when she is on one of her diets. She sometimes points out
that Hiro may be gaining weight, which earns her a punch on the
head by Hiro. Miyako's energy is frequently excessive and
misplaced. Her rent is 5,000 yen cheaper than that of the other
girls because her apartment is in poor repair, which is fortunate
because she has less money than the other girls most of the
time.

Hiro is a year older than Yuno and Miyako, living directly
under Yuno's apartment. Although she tries to be a supportive senpai to the
girls, she tends to worry excessively about her weight, causing her
to go on diets for periods while occasionally binging on sweets. A
childhood friend of Sae, she is one of her neighbor's principal
sources of support when she is involved with a deadline or other
crisis. She is left handed.

Sae is an upperclassman and good friends with Hiro. Her
artistic specialties are photography and fiction writing; she
writes fiction professionally under the pseudonym "Aya Tachibana"
(橘 文,Tachibana Aya
?) and enrolled at the school
specifically so she could learn how to illustrate her own work.
Sae, who is tall, athletic, and generally mature, has a playful
side that can be at the same time enigmatic and cunning; she has a
habit of giving Yuno just enough warning about potential problems
for the younger girl to fail to avoid them. She also has a fondness
for playing detective when faced with such anomalies as Miyako's
apartment. She tends to get upset when Miyako refers to her as
having masculine qualities. She also gets very uncomfortable when
asked about her love life, frequently inventing a history for
herself that even cursory examination would show to be absurd,
while blushing furiously.

Nazuna is a freshman introduced in the July 2008 issue of
Manga Time Kirara Carat
and the third series of the anime. In the manga's canon timeline, a
whole year has passed. She lives in room 203. She has sandy blonde
hair, braids, and large side bangs. She used to live in the
neighborhood, but after entering Yamabuki Art High School her
father was transferred somewhere for work and her mother followed
with him. She appears very quiet and reserved, but has an
inferiority complex. She is not in the art department, but she
shows interest in it.

Nori is another freshman introduced with Nazuna. She lives in
room 103. She has lighter blue hair with pigtails. She is in the
art department and likes to play with computers. She is honest and
straightforward, similar to Miyako, but less erratic. She becomes
the tsukkomi character.

Yoshinoya is Yuno and Miyako's homeroom teacher and art
instructor. She is buxom, exuberant, and a cosplay maniac. So much so, in fact, that she
will frequently wear incredibly complicated things that are at
times truly inappropriate. She has a fondness for modeling for her
class, displaying her latest outfits whenever she can, and showing
off in general. Moreover, she is shown wearing a pair of squeaking
sandals in the anime series. It is later revealed that Yoshinoya
still resides with her parents, and would often be criticized by
them for not being mature. When asked her age, she will answer
"eternally seventeen".

The Principal is a thin, aging and balding man whose teeth are
almost always chattering. Although he sometimes exhibits
inexplicable behavior, when he appears it is most frequently to
chastise Yoshinoya over her latest excess. Miyako can do a
frightening effective imitation of him. His name is unknown, but in
one episode of the anime, Yuno was writing the names of people on
pictures on a paper. When she got to the Principal, the whole class
thought his name was "Moai".

The Landlady is the female owner of Hidamari Apartments. She
has quite a few masculine characteristics as she often wears
baseball cap, goes out for a fishing in her spare time, and is a
heavy smoker. Although she has a very laid-back personality, she is
often seen very busy doing various part-time jobs.

Chika is Sae's thirteen-year-old sister. She is more
spontaneous and energetic than her older sister. She enjoys cooking
and has an infatuation with a Kabuki actor. She has no artistic talent and
prefers music and home economics to art. She has not appeared in
the manga.

Natsume is a rival of Sae's from class D. She later develops
feelings for Sae while maintaining the antagonistic attitude (the
typical tsundere
archetype). In a bonus chapter in volume four of the manga, Natsume
goes through various misfortunes on her first day arriving to
school. Unable to find her shoebox and ready to break down, Sae
shows up to help her, in which she develops strong feelings for
her. At the end, as weeks pass, Natsume manages to bump into Sae
only to find her already close to Hiro, in which she reacts crudely
to Sae.

Media

Manga

The four-panelcomic stripmanga is written and illustrated by
Ume Aoki, and was first
serialized in the seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat in
April 2004, published by Houbunsha. As of December 25, 2008, four bound volumes of the
manga have been published in Japan by Houbunsha under their Manga
Time KR Comics imprint. The
second volume was released in a regular edition, and a limited
edition which included a calendar. The manga is licensed in English
by Yen Press under the
title Sunshine Sketch, and three volumes have been
released as of April 2009 with volume four coming in January
2010.[1]

Anime

A twelve-episode anime was
produced by the animation studio Shaft and aired in Japan between
January 11 and March 29, 2007.[2]
A two-episode addition aired on television on October 18, 2007. The
first twelve episodes were released on six DVD compilation volumes containing two episodes
each between March 28 and August 22, 2007. A DVD containing the two
special episodes was released on October 24, 2007. The anime is not
presented in a chronological sequence though episodes do build upon
each other thematically, with details shown in earlier episodes
becoming important in later ones. The first season of Hidamari
Sketch is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks and
will be distributed by Section23 Films; the first season
collection was released on DVD with English subtitles on January
12, 2010.[4]

A second season entitled Hidamari Sketch×365 aired in
Japan between July 3 and September 25, 2008 and contained thirteen
episodes with the fourteenth episode being bundled with the final
DVD volume.[3][5] Two
special episodes for the second season were broadcast on October 17
and October 24, 2009.[6]
A third season, titled Hidamari Sketch×Hoshi Mittsu(ひだまりスケッチ×☆☆☆
?), began airing on January 7, 2010.[7]

Music

The first season anime, along with the two-episode addition,
used two pieces of theme
music, one opening theme, and one ending theme. The opening
theme is "Sketch Switch" by Kana Asumi, Kaori Mizuhashi, Ryoko Shintani, and Yuko Goto; the single
containing the opening theme was released on January 24, 2007. The
ending theme is "Mebae Drive" by Marble; the single containing the ending
theme was released on February 21, 2007. The first season's
original soundtrack was released on April 25, 2007. A character song mini-album
named Hida Chara was released on September 5, 2007
containing songs sung by voice
actors from the anime. A maxi single entitled "Yume Delivery" (ゆめデリバリー,Yume Deribarī
?) was released on June 4, 2008,
featuring the opening theme to the Hidamari web radio show
sung by Kana Asumi.

For the second season, the opening theme is "Hatena de Wasshoi"
by Asumi, Mizuhashi, Shintani, and Goto; the ending theme is
"Ryūsei Record" by Marble. The opening theme single was released on
July 23, 2008, and the ending theme was released on August 6, 2008.
The second season's original soundtrack was released on October 8,
2008. Four character song singles were released on September 10,
2008 for the four main female characters. An image song collection by Marble entitled
Hidamarble was released on September 26, 2008. Two more
character songs for the character Yoshinoya (voiced by Miyu Matsuki) and The
Principal (voiced by Yūichi Nagashima)
was released on November 5, 2008, and the character song single for
Ume (voiced by Ume Aoki)
was released on January 21, 2009. All albums were released by Lantis.

Light
novels

Two light novels
written by Chabō Higurashi and illustrated by Ume Aoki were released by Houbunsha under their Houbunsha KR
Bunko label. The first novel was released on March 31, 2007
entitled Hidamari Sketch Novel: Yōkoso Hidamari-sō e(ひだまりスケッチノベル ようこそひだまり荘へ
?), and the second followed on September
30, 2007 with the title Hidamari Sketch Novel: Hidamari School
Life(ひだまりスケッチノベル
ひだまりSchool Life
?). The novels are not a new adaptation
of the manga series, but instead draw directly from the manga's
material.

Video
game

A Nintendo DSvideo game entitled
Hidamari Sketch Dokodemo Sugoroku×365(ひだまりスケッチ どこでもすごろく×365
?) was released on February 12, 2009.
The game primarily plays like a normal board game with consecutive boards, each
representing a month during Yuno's first school year. Depending on
the square landed upon, characters may play one of numerous
mini-games, experience mini-events—dialogue and sometimes imagery
relating to minor occurrences around Hidamari apartments or the
school, or encounter major events which play out similarly to the
episode of the anime on which they are based. Points are accrued
throughout the year to determine a winning character, and the
points can then be used to unlock items in the extras menu.